The Uttar Pradesh government’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) has completed its investigation into the gang rape of the 19-year-old Dalit woman last month in the state district of Hathras, the ANI news agency reported on Friday. SIT will soon present its report to the state government, the agency added.
Amid outrage over the handling of the case by the local administration, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath recommended that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should carry out the investigation. Following the recommendation of the prime minister and a notification from the Center, the rape and murder case was turned over to the central agency.
However, the state-formed SIT continued its investigation and encouraged individuals to come forward and record their statements if they knew of any details related to the case.
CBI is now conducting the investigation and has registered a case against the four defendants named by the woman before she died. All the men belong to the Thakur community and are currently in a prison in Aligarh. So far, the central agency has questioned the relatives of both the victim and the accused, and also the police officers associated with the case.
CBI, however, will not investigate cases related to the alleged criminal conspiracy to spread caste conflicts, instigation of violence, incidents of vicious propaganda by sectors of the media and political interests, a senior official from the agency. These cases were registered by the state government.
Following the sexual assault on September 14, the woman died in a Delhi hospital on September 29 and was cremated the next day at 2:30 am against the wishes of her family. The family has alleged that they could not even see his face prior to cremation.
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